THE ASCENT OF THE BODY 79 



the primitive savage, in a one-roomed hut, a single 

 simple cell. This cell is round and almost micro- 

 scopic in size. When fully formed it measures 

 only one-tenth of a line in diameter, and with the 

 naked eye can be barely discerned as a very fine 

 point. An outer covering, transparent as glass, 

 surrounds this little sphere, and in the interior, em- 

 bedded in protoplasm, lies a bright globular spot. 

 In form, in size, in composition there is no apparent 

 difference between this human cell and that of any 

 other mammal. The dog, the elephant, the lion, 

 the ape, and a thousand others begin their widely 

 different lives in a house the same as Man's. At 

 an earlier stage indeed, before it has taken on its 

 pellucid covering, this cell has affinities still more 

 astonishing. For at that remoter period the earlier 

 forms of all living things, both plant and animal, 

 are one. It is one of the most astounding facts 

 of modern science that the first embryonic abodes 

 of moss and fern and pine, of shark and crab and 

 coral polyp, of lizard, leopard, monkey, and Man 

 are so exactly similar that the highest powers of 

 mind and microscope fail to trace the smallest dis- 

 tinction between them. 



But let us watch the development of this one- 

 celled human embryo. Increase of rooms in archi- 

 tecture can be effected in either of two ways — by 



